The Royal Wizard (3 page)

“Mistake,” he repeated, his deep voice strained, as if he was trying to hold back laughter. “You came to the prince’s bed chamber by mistake? And how, pray tell, did you manage to appear here without me hearing you enter?”

“What prince?”

“This prince,” he replied. “Son of King Manfred of Frastmir, heir to the throne of Wilderheim. Are there so many princes around you need clarification?”

“The prince is not due to return until tomorrow. You’re lying to me.”

He leaned in closer. “Are you certain of that?”

Scowling, Nia quickly cast her senses down through the walls into the earth to orient herself. She went two stories down and through the underground study before she touched packed earth and bedrock. She found the leylines running north and south and determined she was in the south wing of the castle. The royal wing, where only the king, his heir, and visiting nobility slept. Flowing back to the chamber, she followed the floor stones out into the hallway and traced it left and right. Not far to the left, she felt a different song. Wood. A great wooden portal which could only be the king’s bedchamber.

Oh, no.

 “P-prince Saeran?” she asked weakly. Who else would be sleeping in the prince’s bedchamber?

“Who are you?” he demanded. “Did you come through the window? Where are the ropes? Who helped you?” The tip of the dagger ran up the crease in her cloak to her neck. “Why are you here, little bird?”

“It was an accident. Please, I mean you no harm,” she implored reaching out. She didn’t need to touch the dagger to make the blade disappear; she could work the spell through him.

He breathed in deeper when her fingers curled into his night shirt. The blade was gone. He wouldn’t see it disappear in the darkness, but he might feel the weapon’s balance change. “So you’re not here to warm my bed,” he said, “but you want to. Is that it?”

Nia sputtered.

“If I were you, I’d choose my words wisely.”

“Release me,” she told him.

“And if I do not?”

“Then…then I will…” She would what? He was the royal heir, the future king to whom she was supposed to be swearing her fealty tomorrow. What could she do? Maim him? Enchant him? Turn him into a bumbling idiot? “I’ll turn you into a toad,” she finally said and winced.

He chuckled. “A witchling, then? Turn me into a toad, you say?” She felt his lips by her ear as he whispered, “I’m fairly certain they jail people for that.”

They would do more than jail her if anyone found out. “Don’t make me do this,” Nia said, willing him to step back and release her.

Instead he leaned in even closer, his nose to her neck and inhaled. “I can make you relent. I can make you want me.”

At her wits’ end, Nia did what she had to. “And I can make you regret this for the rest of your life.” She shouted three words, hoping they were the right ones. There was no flash, no great boom of magic, only silence. Nia reached out but encountered only air where the prince had stood. “Prince Saeran?”

Nothing.

With a thought, she conjured light and looked around. The chamber was grand and worthy of a prince, but it was cold in its opulence. He had yet to make it his home again. “Prince Saeran?”

Croak.

Nia looked down and her light flared brighter as relief washed over her. She hadn’t killed him!

There at her feet was a bewildered toad, staring at his hands, his eyes wide and mouth open. Then he looked up at her. He croaked and jumped, landing on his side and rolling onto his back. His wild struggle to right himself made Nia wince. He kicked his legs and made a sound no natural toad would make. It might have been a panicked scream.

Taking pity on him, Nia picked the creature up and brought him to her face so they were at an equal level. “I did warn you,” she said. “No, don’t struggle, you will hurt yourself. I will turn you back but you have to stay still, or I cannot release you.”

The kicking continued. He even tried to bite her, not realizing toads had no teeth. The clamp of his soft mouth over her fingers was little more than a tickle but when his long tongue shot out at her face, he almost struck her eye.

“All right,” she said, holding him a little farther to evade his continued attacks and spoke the words to reverse her spell. The air shifted, her light flickered, and the toad grew and transformed back into a man, which left Nia holding his face. Any doubt she may have had as to his true identity disappeared when she recognized him by the light of her magic. Dread settled in her belly.
Gods protect me.
She’d turned the crown prince into a toad!

Saeran blinked his eyes rapidly, panting as his heart fluttered in his chest. His feet tingled and his arms and legs were shaky. But at least he had feet. And legs, and arms! Saeran pushed away from the accursed witch and immediately tripped over his own feet. He hit the floor hard, but the pain was nothing to him while his heart tried to beat its way out of his chest. He stared at the witch with his eyes open so wide he thought they might fall right out of his head, but he dared not blink even once for fear of what she might do to him next.

There was still light in the room, little orbs of it floating in the air between them like giant fireflies. Breathing hard to keep from fainting like a girl, he stared at the woman, truly seeing her for the first time. She wasn’t very tall, but she carried herself with the air of someone much bigger and nobler than her dress would let on. He’d caught the merest glimpse of her before his candle went out earlier, but now that he saw her Saeran had no doubt she was powerful. He could see it in her eyes.

“Are you all right?” she asked, wringing her hands together.

“All right? I…” That was when he saw his dagger. Or rather, the hilt of it because the blade was gone. His favorite dagger! The one gifted to him by King Halden, which he kept at his side all the time and beneath his pillow when he slept. It was ruined. And it was her fault! “You changed me into a toad!”

“You thought I was a whore!” she returned with righteous indignation.

“Who the bloody hell are you?”

She took a deep breath and absently waved a hand. All the torches and candles in the room flared to life. “Ah!” When she took a step toward him, he scrambled back, grabbing the ruined dagger hilt and waving it at her. “Stay away from me!”

She stopped, looking unsure. “I am Nia,” she said, bowing at the waist like a knight. “Nico’s apprentice.”

The wizard’s name stirred a memory, but as awake as he was at the moment, Saeran was still exhausted from the journey. He’d only gotten to bed moments before this stranger appeared, having spent long hours talking to his father. “My father did mention something about an apprentice,” he said, trying to recall his exact words. “He did not say it was a woman.” But he had said he’d never met the apprentice himself.

Nia blushed, appearing much younger than she had when he’d seen her through the eyes of a toad. “He doesn’t know, Highness. I am to be presented at court tomorrow.”

In the silence that followed, Saeran’s mouth quirked. “He doesn’t know?” Sitting there on the floor of his bed chamber, dressed in nothing but his night shirt while a cloaked woman with hair like sunshine caught in gold looked at him as if she expected him to shout for the guards and have her beheaded, Saeran’s dagger hand lowered. Of all the things he’d imagined coming home to, this had to be the most ridiculous.

As the panic he’d felt slowly melted into irrational hilarity, he imagined this Nia appearing before him and his father tomorrow and suddenly he couldn’t contain his mirth. The chuckle turned into a laugh, and when she looked at him as if he’d lost his mind it got worse. “Gods, I can’t wait to see his face!” He fell back, lying spread eagle, laughing until he couldn’t breathe. “Ahahahahagirlhahahahahwizardahahahah…”

If anyone saw him in that moment, they would think him mad. Every time he tried to stop, he would look at the girl and start all over again. His sides began to hurt and his eyes watered, which only made him laugh harder.

Finally he struggled to raise himself off the ground, his insides still tickling, but he tried hard to make himself stop. He grinned at Nico’s chosen apprentice and had the satisfaction of seeing her completely confused, which he would wager his future crown didn’t happen often.

She drew back when he approached, another spell no doubt on the tip of her tongue. He liked her already.

“Calm yourself, Nia,” he said, his grin turning crooked, “I know better than to make you angry twice. Who knows what you would turn me into next?”

After an uncertain moment, Nia returned his smile. “I was considering, a caterpillar. Or some other kind of worm.”

Saeran chuckled. “I could not have asked for a more fitting advisor.”

“Nia,”
Nico’s familiar disembodied voice whispered through the chamber, and Nia’s smile fell away.

“I must go.”

“No, wait!” But she was already gone, dissolved into mist and then nothing at all.

Saeran sighed, disappointed.

She’d turned him into a toad. He smiled. The woman had courage. He needed that. Someone who wouldn’t be afraid to tell him the truth, no matter how unpleasant. He’d spent too much time in a place where no one could afford to be above another. To come back here, where even as a child no one had ever told him anything but what they thought he’d wanted to hear was something of a disappointment. How was Saeran to trust someone who couldn’t look him in the eye?

But Nia was already proving herself different. Even unsure of herself in the presence of the royal heir, she hadn’t hesitated to put him in his place. Curious that it ended up being at her feet. Even more curious was that while she’d bowed to him, he’d wanted to bow to her in return.

Nico would not have groomed a fool, let alone presented one at court as his successor. If he had enough faith in a female to have her take his place, it meant she had to be not only powerful but learned as well. The wizard Saeran knew would have made certain his successor was everything he himself had been. He would have taught Nia all he knew and groomed her to put the welfare of the kingdom before anything else.

Saeran had no doubt Nico’s faith in her would be justified, and that intrigued him immensely. He would have kept her here with him until morning had she not disappeared. He wanted to talk to her, get to know the woman who would be his right hand when he took the throne.

During the hours he’d talked to his father, the king had informed him of his decision to step down in a few months’ time. The years he’d been away had taken their toll on his father. The once proud king was now tired, eager to relinquish his crown and all its responsibilities. With Saeran returned healthy and hale, he wanted nothing more than to be a father to his son. Saeran would be king before he’d even had time to reacquaint himself with his kingdom, and he would need Nia more than she realized if he was to justify Manfred’s faith in him.

There would be argument, but Saeran didn’t care. He couldn’t wait to stand up in front of the assembly tomorrow and thumb his nose at tradition and all those old goats on Father’s advisory council by accepting her as his.

CHAPTER 3

Nia spent the day avoiding Nico. Since she couldn’t go outside and the study was too obvious, she hid inside her room, locked and warded so he couldn’t get in. Of course, that wouldn’t stop him if he was really determined; he’d taught her those wards, after all. But at least he respected her wishes and left her alone. The king no doubt kept him busy, seeing as the prince arrived ahead of schedule. The entire castle was talking about it. Not just the servants, but the walls as well. Nia was mortified. If the walls knew, then Nico definitely already knew.

Nia moaned and hid her face in her pillow. “How am I supposed to face any of them?”

The walls laughed at her. 

At noon, Nico knocked on her door.

“I don’t want to see anyone!”

“Very well,” Nico said. “Stay there if you wish, but do not be late for the ceremony. Your dress robes are ready.”

When she was certain he’d left, Nia cautiously opened the door and looked at the garments hanging there as if a person stood in them. “You are not dress robes,” she said.

The garment shoulders raised in a shrug.

Nia rolled her eyes and stepped back, allowing the clothes to walk in.

These were the clothes that took months to be decided on? She supposed it could be worse. As a wizard, Nia had no rank. She wasn’t a commoner so she could not wear the dresses they wore, nor was she a noble to wear gowns and jewels. Instead, Nico decreed a wizard should dress so no one would see her as one of them, but everyone would know to come to her when needed. Nia would wear a pair of breeches, a blouse and a long jerkin. The breeches were wide for modesty but while the jerkin was long, it would mold to her figure, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that she was female.

Nia had spent the last ten years dressing like a boy, and modesty wasn’t something she’d spent too much time thinking about. What worried her more was that people would be looking at her and really seeing
her.
Their eyes wouldn’t glance off her to look at something else, and at the king’s right hand on the dais she would be the center of attention right along with him. Come what may, there would be no more hiding from anyone. 

Nia touched the clothes, and they flew away from her, pointing at the bath tub before laying neatly out on her bed, ready to be donned. Nia considered running away. She could fly out the window and be long gone by the time they came to summon her.

But she couldn’t do that. Nico had saved her life. He was the only family she had and the only one who hadn’t turned her away. She owed him more than she could ever repay, if she lived to be a hundred years old. This had always been the price for his hospitality, friendship and tutelage, and Nia had accepted it knowing this day would come.

All too soon the bell tolled for the evening meal. It was time for Nia to get ready. She washed in the tub, scrubbing her skin until it was pink and rinsing her hair with flower-steeped water. With a thought, she dried herself and dressed and then paced the room trying to come up with an excuse not to go down to meet her mentor.